I have allergies. There are trees and grasses to which I'm allergic and a few foods as well, most notably crab, which is especially unfortunate. More than food and flora though, I'm allergic to fast meaningless talk. Fast talk and fast talkers, bring on the vapid empty smile and the loud self-talk that keeps me from saying out loud, "For goodness sake, what are you really trying to say?"
The other day, someone reached out to me on a professional social networking site. This individual started her interaction by referring to me as an A+ professional (what is that exactly?) and going on to say that she was looking to build a team of A+ professionals for a business with which she works. OK. So far so good.
Being (i) polite and (ii) mildly interested in the opportunity she was selling, I responded asking for further information. What I got in return was a lot of words, words full of sound and fury, as Shakespeare would say, but signifying nothing. It took me a couple of reads but I really couldn't figure out what the angle of this *business* was. Her email was either deliberately vague or just unfortunately obtuse. Either way, a very bad sign. At any rate, I didn't have sufficient information to make the decision to take time away from the things I must do, to go and find out more about something I might do. I said, "No thank you". I assumed that was the end of that. Wrong!
Consider my horror then, when she writes me back this mildly insulting note in which she asserts that "We can not promise anyone anything who are not at least willing to meet our team, for we can afford to be very selected [I think she meant 'selective'] as to whomever we want to bring aboard." She went on to say that "[t]he information and mechanics to our firm can be given out at anytime [so why then would you not give me proper information when I asked for it?] and most preferred, through the interview process. We feel that if the candidate is not willing to meet our team [did I indicate unwillingness or did I simply request more complete information?], and/or does not interact well with our team, then, there is no need to waste time giving out our information to the wrong candidate." Well, let me not "waste your time" then.
I'm so fascinated by people who, when they don't get what they want, can find no other response than to denigrate that which they cannot have. What's that about? Don't I get a choice? And having made a choice, what right have you to insult me for choosing other than you? I mean come on, can we try to be adults? Please? Just for a minute maybe? This all reminds me of a guy I met some time ago. Things were proceeding rather slowly and laboriously, so I suggested that we weren't a good match. His response, "That's right cause you are one boring a@# b*tch!" (clearly he hasn't read my blog!). Because I like to poke wild animals, I responded, "Clearly I was right in my assessment. No man I would date would speak to a woman that way." I think I wished him the peace of God after that.
Never let it be said that I don't give as good as I get. This time though, I'll leave well enough alone. Sometimes wild animals can be unpredictable and given that we share the same social space, professionally speaking, I would probably be advised to slink quietly away and give her no reason to slash and burn my professional reputation. *slink, slink* [the sound of me slinking away]
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